How do we design our PE programs to

meet the Australian Curriculum intention

to teach for understanding and health

promoting PE?

Shane Pill

Flinders University School of Education

@pilly66

Act 1: Strength-based approach to physical education

Act 2: The PE teacher is the most important school based determinant in student education outcomes in PE

Act 3: The “standard view” of education is essentially academic. That is, education is concerned with the acquisition and mastery of knowledge

Act 4: If the PE curriculum and teacher pedagogy was informed by the “tested evidence” of published research, what might it look like?

The questions we must not be afraid to ask ourselves are, ‘Is our influence any more noteworthy now than say 10 years ago? Is our service improving? (Emmel, 1979)

Mutton (1981) expressed his concerns about the teaching and status of physical education in South Australian Schools to The Committee of Enquiry into Physical Education and Sport in South Australian Schools. He concluded that, “vague notions of playing games and sports are no longer adequate attitudes towards physical education”

Act 1: Strength-based approach to physical education “supporting students to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills they require to make healthy, safe and active choices that will enhance their own and others’ health and wellbeing”

“...focuses explicitly on developing movement skills and concepts students require to participate in physical activities with competence and confidence. The knowledge, understanding, skills and dispositions students develop through movement in Health and Physical Education encourage ongoing participation across their lifespan and in turn lead to positive health outcomes. Movement competence and confidence is seen as an important personal and community asset to be developed, refined and valued.”

“...engages students in critical inquiry processes that assist students in researching, analysing, applying and appraising knowledge” Critical inquiry is not the same as critical thinking

'critical thinking' tends to draw on a philosophical tradition of 'logical reasoning', attention is directed to problem-solving, reasoning and higher order thinking skills. Learning to think critically is in large measure learning to know when to question something, and what sorts of questions to ask‘ Critical inquiry - Proponents of this approach are primarily interested in assisting students to examine and challenge the status quo, the dominant constructions of reality and the power relations that produce inequalities, in ways that can lead to advocacy and community action

Act 2: The Challenge: The PE teacher is the most important school determinant Pedagogical and content direction is meant to come from the curriculum document …shift from curricula grounded in an “objectives approach” to implementation of a "competence-based curriculum"

Australian Curriculum HPE (2014) Queensland Essential Learning National Statement & Profile (1994)

Year 3/4 Perform movement sequences Examine the benefits of physical activity and physical fitness to health and wellbeing

Development of locomotor and non-locomotor movements and manipulative skills

Performs and repeats linked movement sequences Gives personal views of fitness

Australian Curriculum HPE (2014) Queensland Essential Learning National Statement & Profile (1994)

Year 7/8 Evaluate and justify

reasons for decisions

and choices of action

when solving

movement

challenges

Create and monitor

personal fitness

plans

Modifying techniques and selectively applying movement concepts Propose, justify, implement and monitor plans or actions to promote health and wellbeing, movement capacities and personal development

Plans and

implements ways of

improving physical

performance by

evaluating personal

performance and

that of others

Designs and

undertakes a fitness

program that reflects

personal

understanding and

goals of fitness

Australian Curriculum HPE (2014) Queensland Essential Learning National Statement & Profile (1994)

Year 9/10 Devise, implement

and refine strategies

demonstrating

leadership and

collaboration skills

when working in

groups or teams

Develop, implement

and evaluate

movement concepts

and strategies for

successful outcomes

Design, implement

and evaluate

personalised plans

for improving or

maintaining their own

and others’ physical

activity and fitness

levels

Developing and refining specialised movement skills through applying movement concepts

Developing teamwork, tactical knowledge and strategic thinking

Individual physical activity programs that reflect personal interests and goals, and the principles of training,

Analyses and

contrasts personal

movement patterns

and those of others with

those of an elite

performer to design

and implement

strategies to improve

performance

Critically analyses

fitness programs and

methods for evaluating

fitness to design fitness

programs

It is what teachers know, do, and care about which is very powerful in the learning equation ...the main feature of the research evidence is that the “biggest” effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching ...

The challenge to change thinking History has shown that a new curriculum document of itself is not sufficient to bring about change. Frequently, new curricula “limps along in the shadow of old knowledge and past practice” marginalised in the curriculum-making process (Brooker & Clennett, 2006)

Changing curriculum and therefore student learning outcomes requires changing teacher thinking to change what teachers

The challenge to be a content expert The important role of teacher’s knowledge in the practice of teachers Expert teachers are more likely to challenge students to master rather than to perform, to engage rather than participate, and to set challenging goals rather than encouraging students to “have a go” or “do your best”

The challenge to move from the margins Physical educators must be able to clearly define their program outcomes and how the program outcomes are measured, and be willing to hold programs and PE teachers accountable for effective teaching. Must move from the “thinness” of some curriculum accounts of PE that are little more than a list of activities with ambitions for students to have fun, be busy and be good.

Act 3: The “standard view” of education is essentially academic. That is, education is concerned with the acquisition and mastery of knowledge - Subject disciplinary knowledge - Valued cultural knowledge

Sports possess a cognitive complexity – think about the way a tennis player couples information (as perceptual judgment and anticipation – reading the play) in a time-compressed performance context to a complex motor response in order to meet a momentary configuration of play. Where games and sport are taught well ethical notions such as equality, fairness, rule-abiding action are necessary. How often these valued characteristics are explicitly taught? Individualised health activities- Where is the cognitive complexity? Where are the ethical notions apparent? What type of learners do we want to play a part in developing? What type of learners is expected in the curriculum document?

The most commonly anticipated effect of being exposed to PE at a young age is socialisation into physical activity There is no evidence that “normal PE” impacts physical activity participation rates or health outcomes

Is what has traditionally passed as PE “Mickey Mouse”? (Macdonald, 1995)

Why? * Multi-activity curriculum * Sport-as-techniques * Decontextualised abstracted learning * PE as training ~ focus on directive pedagogy Demonstrate-Explain-Practice * Content disconnected or unrelated ~ no “coherent complexity” * Not learning content of substance * Content does not connect with school extra-curricular offerings or what is available to students in their community * Graded on effort not achievement

Traditional PE pedagogy, has little interest

in critical judgment and social reconstruction.

It is the pedagogy of performance Aiming for the following objectives- 1. Immediate response to a stimulus 2. Uniformity 3. Conformity 4. Synchronized performance 5. Adherence to a predetermined technique 6. Replication of a technique

Is physical education rhetoric or reality? The claimed benefits of PE do not match the reality of the experience Do Australian physical education teachers lack “teaching perspectives”?

(Alexander, 2013) I assert that many school HPE programs keep three ‘dirty little secrets’ from those outside the profession: 1. They struggle to develop motor skills (when multi-

activity programming – MAP – predominates) ; 2. They don’t develop game performance (requires a tactical focus uncommon in many MAPs); 3. They don’t develop fitness (often tested but rarely affected by MAPs). When questioned, PE teachers blame the students, the school for providing insufficient time for PE while few blame the construction of PE

Critics argue that more sophisticated ways of thinking about games teaching and coaching are required if their potential for student-centred and contextually relevant learning experiences are to be achieved (Light & Mooney, 2014)

Act 4: If the PE curriculum and teacher pedagogy was informed by the “tested evidence” of peer reviewed literature, what might it look like?

Explicit Teaching Teachers should tell students about big ideas and essential questions, performance requirements, and evaluative criteria at the beginning of the unit or course. Students should be able to describe the goals (big ideas and essential questions) and performance requirements of the unit or course. The learning environment should have high expectations and incentives for all students to come to understand the big ideas and answer the essential questions. Using teaching approaches informed by constructivist learning theory to teach for understanding using a pedagogical emphasis like guided inquiry should not be confused with the need for being clear and having clear expectations for what students should be doing, and establishing with students clarity of options for responses within a set of clearly communicated expectations. Constructivist informed “student-centred” teaching does not abdicate a teacher from being clear or having clear and explicit expectations for performance

Thematic curriculum (big ideas-learning context) #Education in movement #Education about movement #Education through movement (Arnold, 1979)

Education through and about Movement Sport Education in Physical Education Curriculum Model

Aims: competent (tactical+technical skills), literature (understand history + culture, ritual, tradition of sport, engagement in personal and social skill learning) It has been shown that the Sport Education model offers young people: - A broad range of additional learning experiences, such as the

development of social skills and critical consumerism. - Girls, lower-skilled and non-participating students seem to gain

important benefits in terms of participation and learning outcomes And the research evidence suggests: - High levels of student engagement

The curriculum model has been successfully applied to outdoor and adventure activities, gymnastics, swimming, athletics (see Penney, Clark, Quill

&Kinchin Eds., 2005 and Hastie Ed., 2012)

Education in Movement

The Australian Game Sense approach for tactical and technical game and sport skill learning provides a physically active context for problem posing and guided exploration of game problems. Students are provided opportunities to think deeply about performance in context and apply knowledge to achieve meaningful game solutions within a learning environment characterised by higher levels of MVPA than achieved in the more common directive and drill based PE. A Game Sense approach has been connected to “quality teaching” in PE frameworks similar to TfEL (see Light et al., 2014 and Pill,

2011)

Education through and about movement Health Based PE/Health Orientated PE

Fundamentally important is “valuing a physically active life”- Educating through movement students learn to value and practice appropriate physical activities that enhance health and wellbeing now and in the future Examples include: #Corbin & Lindsay’s “Fitness for Life” #Sports Play and Active Recreation Program for Kids (Spark) #True Sport (Canada) #Positive youth development through sport #Australian Sports Commission “Healthy Active Kids”

In Conclusion… Thematic curriculum

#Education in movement to help all students develop patterns of engagement in PA that reflect opportunity and interest, and a conceptualisation of fitness that facilitates links with both sport and health #Education about movement for functional engagement in active and healthy communities #Education through movement students learn to value and practice appropriate physical activities that enhance health and wellbeing now and in the future

In Conclusion… “pedagogical toolkit” (Pill, 2012)

Used to create a physically active context for problem posing and guided exploration of game problems. One in which students are provided opportunities to think deeply about performance in context and apply knowledge to achieve meaningful solutions within a learning environment characterised by higher levels of MVPA than achieved in the more common directive and drill based PE.

A typical sequential approach of marching through content chronologically does not pass the test of intelligent continuity PE teachers are essentially pedagogues Central to the pedagogy is student learning “Are we improving?”- not a question about the curriculum document, but a question about the design and enactment of physical EDUCATION and therefore, a question about the efficacy of PE teachers